


Barely Enough

by ohemgeeitscoley



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Summer Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 06:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4379981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohemgeeitscoley/pseuds/ohemgeeitscoley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity and Tommy's summer is coming to an end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Barely Enough

**Author's Note:**

> The first line is from a prompt from Absentlyabbie on tumblr for the "give me a sentence and I'll write five more meme." I wrote a few more than five.

Tommy pulled her closer, burying his face in her shoulder instead of the pillow, and let himself be greedy for a moment.

She was going to be gone in less than five days. He knew from the beginning that he shouldn’t start counting down the days. It wasn’t as if it was a secret that Felicity was only going to be there for the summer.

Their relationship had an expiration date placed on it from the day it began. There was never a time he hadn’t been aware of that. In fact, the majority of their first conversations were of him convincing her that it didn’t matter. That they could have a great summer together and each go their separate ways in the fall.

He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with her. It wasn’t in either of their best interests. The temporary, summer romance had been much easier without deeper feelings. Because now he was counting down days, waiting for her to break his heart. It wasn’t fair to her.

He pulled back from her, resting his head on his palm, his other hand wrapping around her waist, as he looked at her. He sighed, louder than he had meant, stirring Felicity from her sleep.

“You know the whole staring at me while sleeping thing has always been creepy, Merlyn,” Felicity mumbled, her eyes still shut, as she wiggled out of his arms and turned toward him. Her eyes barely open as she smiled at him softly. “Don’t you look at me enough during the day?”

Tommy shook his head, using his finger to trace along her jaw bone. “There’s just not enough minutes in the day.”

“Stop being so cheesy,” Felicity grumbled, her smile growing as she rested her head against his shoulder. “You have to leave for work soon.”

Tommy sighed, running his fingers through her hair. “You’re the one that has to leave soon Felicity.”

Groaning, Felicity rolled away from Tommy, lying flat on her back. She shut her eyes quickly, her face falling at where the conversation was headed. “I thought we agreed to not talk about that.”

“No, you agreed to not talk about it.”

“Tommy,” Felicity started, her voice more awake as she opened her eyes to glare at him. “That is not–”

“No,” Tommy interrupted. “You’re leaving in a week. Boston is three thousand miles away, Felicity. And you still want to avoid talking about it.“

“Is this really coming from Mr. I don’t make plans for anything that’s more than twenty four hours in the future?” Felicity asked, sitting up entirely, pulling the sheet up with her as she pressed her back against the headboard of Tommy’s bed. "What happened to that guy?”

“He fell in love with you,” Tommy shouted, groaning as he looked at Felicity. “I… I fell in love with you.”

Felicity didn’t say anything, her eyes wide as she watched Tommy’s face fall. Her mouth opened slightly as he got out of the bed.

“Tommy,” she finally managed, just as Tommy was pulling a shirt over her head. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

Tommy’s laughter came out sarcastically, so painfully different than the laugh Felicity was used to. “Don’t you think I know that?” he asked, his tone hollow.

He didn’t wait for an answer that time.

—–

“Can we talk?” Felicity asked hopefully, raising her hand to cover her eyes as she glanced up at Tommy. She smiled brightly as he looked down at her from the lifeguard post.

“I don’t have a break for another hour.”

Felicity stepped back, her feet sinking further into the sand. She shut her eyes at the sharpness of Tommy’s words. She hadn’t expected him to be thrilled to see her, but she hadn’t expected him to be so cold either.

“Sara said she would cover for you.” She pointed at the blonde walking toward them. “As long as you consider it your birthday present.”

Tommy sighed, removing the flotation device from his lap as he climbed down from the post. “Perfect. My birthday present is missing an hour of work for my girlfriend to break up with me.”

“Hey,” Felicity began, her voice harsh as she reached out to grab Tommy’s arm. “I am not breaking up with you.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Can we–” Felicity paused, sighing as she dropped her hand from Tommy’s arm before wrapping her arms around her stomach. “Can we not do this here?”

“Why not? It’s poetic. Ending things where it all began.”

“Are you sure you aren’t the one breaking up with me?” Felicity asked, her voice cracking slightly as she fought back tears.

“Hey party people!” Sara exclaimed as she stopped next to Felicity, placing her arm on Felicity’s shoulder. “Or, not so party people?” Sara tilted her head, looking at Felicity’s face. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Felicity said, nodding along as if doing so was going to be enough to make it true. Felicity reached up to squeeze Sara’s hand. “Everything’s good. Thanks for doing this.”

“Of course.” Sara let go of Felicity’s shoulder, moving around Tommy to stand underneath the post. "Just make sure you’re back by two okay? I promised Thea I would help set up for your party.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said, already walking away from them.

Felicity sighed, running her fingers through her hair. “Thanks, Sara. I really do appreciate it.”

With one last, small smile, Felicity turned around and walked toward Tommy who was already halfway to the pier.

“Tommy! Hey, come on,” Felicity shouted, jogging slightly to catch up with him. “I’m sorry about this morning.”

Felicity reached out, her hand brushing against his. “Seriously,” she continued. “I know we need to talk about me leaving. And we will, but not today. We should be eating ice cream and finding places to sneak off to have birthday sex. Not… not dealing with something we don’t have to.”

Tommy huffed, stopping abruptly as he turned around to look at Felicity. “Don’t have to? Not today?” Tommy repeated, his voice laced with disbelief. “Why because it’s my birthday? Can’t break up a guy on his birthday, right?”

“That’s not,” Felicity stopped, biting against her bottom lip. “I already told you I’m not–”

“Breaking up with me today. Yeah, I heard you earlier.” Tommy sighed, pushing his hands against the front of his shorts. “But you’re going to. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not until I’m dropping you off at the airport, trying to make plans to come visit you. But you are going to. And I can’t… I won’t wait for it.”

“You’re really breaking up with me aren’t you,” Felicity asked, staring down at the sand, not even bothering to trying to hold back her tears. He was breaking up with her. She had come down here to tell him that she loved him and that they would find a way to make it work and _he was breaking up with her._

“I’m just… speeding up the inevitable. We knew when we started this, that it would end. It was stupid to think that we could make this work.”

“Stupid,” Felicity repeated angrily, glancing up at him. “Yeah, no, you’re right. This whole fucking thing was stupid. I knew that. God, I knew that. I never should have agreed to any of this.”

Felicity shook her head, laughing at the absolutely absurdity of this conversation. How exactly did someone go from ‘I love you’ to ‘let’s break up’ in less than twelve hours? She closed her eyes, shivering despite the heat from the sun on her back as she waited for him to take it back. Or for her to fight back.

“I’m, uh, I’m going to go get my stuff from your place,” Felicity stated slowly, her hands pressing against her face to wipe away her tears. “Have a great life Tommy,” Felicity said, the words bitter as she walked past him.

Tommy’s face fell, as he squeezed his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching out to stop her, to comfort her. He fought every urge he had to run after her. He knew he was doing the right thing.

Things would be better this way.

–

Felicity smiled at her reflection, twitching her nose as she tried to figure out what was missing. She was already late, Tommy’s party was supposed to start at eight, and the time she had looked at her phone it had been eight thirty. But she wanted to look perfect. Everything had to be perfect, it was her last chance.

She wasn’t going to lose Tommy. He was scared. She knew that, she felt it. She had gone to the beach to tell him that she had loved him. That he was right, she was avoiding talking about her leaving because it was hard. But that was okay. They could do hard. As long as they were doing it together. 

She shouldn’t have left the beach without telling him that. She had spent the last few hours regretting it. Regretting her relationship with Tommy was not on the list of things Felicity was prepared to deal with. She was going to go to the party and she wasn’t going to leave until he understood that she wasn’t giving up on them. 

Her fingers ran along the numerous tubes of lipstick lined up along the back of the counter. She smiled as her finger touched the light peach shade she had been wearing the day she meet Tommy. It was lighter than most of the other colors, more playful and fun. It would be perfect.

She picked the tube up, quickly taking the lid off and began to swipe it over her lips. Felicity paused as she heard her phone ring. Again. She glanced toward the nightstand where her phone was charging, but was unable to see who it was from where she was standing. She placed the lipstick tube back on the counter as she walked out of the bathroom and over to her phone.

“Thea, hey. I know I’m running late,” Felicity answered as she disconnected the phone from the charger, pressing the phone against her shoulder as she walked back toward the bathroom. “Tommy and I got into a huge fight earlier. I promise I’m finishing my lipstick and I’m out the door, okay?”

“Felicity,” Thea started, her voice low.

“I know. I swear I’m not normally this late. I just… we sort of broke up. I wasn’t even going to come, but I love him? You know that. I need him to know that. And I don’t,” Felicity paused, sighing as she glanced into the mirror. She reached for the lipstick tube again before continuing.“I’m not going to let a little bit of distance pull us apart. That’s just stupid and–”

“Felicity,” Thea interrupted, her voice louder.

Felicity paused, her hand freezing as the panic in Thea’s voice fully registered. Felicity’s hands fell back to her side as her chest constricted, her lungs burning as she waited for Thea to continue.

“Thea? What’s wrong?” Felicity asked after a moment, her voice shaky as she reached her hand out and placed it on the bathroom counter to help steady herself.

“There’s,” Thea paused, Felicity could hear the tears in shuddering sigh Thea had taken. “There’s been an accident. Tommy–”

Felicity didn’t hear the rest of Thea’s sentence, as she fell down to the floor, her heartbeat flooding her ears. Her breathing grew more and more ragged as she tried to piece together the words Thea was saying:

_Tommy. Accident. Hospital. Flatline._


End file.
